One thing about the Internet and marketing is that things keep changing…for the better.
Google is now rolling out Places and to some degree it’s another game changer for brand managers looking to advertise in local markets through local dealers.
Here’s what it looks like (I added the red circles):
You may not see this in your browser yet so go here to test drive it yourself (click on Places).
There’s a lot going on here and it will take awhile to sort through all of the issues. The first takeaway is that this is going to change SEO local strategies immediately, I’ll be watching for the blog posts.
Secondly, it puts much more emphasis on your dealers’ Places listing. Now, that’s probably not something you’ve thought about nor have your retailers. More on that later too, but the basic idea is that your retailers should claim their own store listing in Places and update it with your brand listing. We can help.
Most importantly is that Google is changing from Maps to Places and you should go with them. Google claims that more than 20% of all searches have a local intent and they want to give consumers what they’re looking for.
As a brand manager the challenge is to bring your message to consumers wherever they are, and lots of them are searching locally for dealer and product simultaneously.
Several years ago someone opined that national brand sites will become a thing of the past as the content will be better served to consumers at the local level (or now social, too). Places is another step in that direction.